protracts

Verb

protract (third-person singular simple present protracts, present participle protracting, simple past and past participle protracted)

1. To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
   • Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock;
     Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

   Synonyms:

   prolong

2. To use a protractor.
3. To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
   • This is a synopsis of our marches, which, protracted on Burckhardt’s map, gives an error of ten miles.1856, Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Volume 3, Chapter 25, page 147, footnote
4. To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.
   • to protract a decision or duty
5. To extend; to protrude.
   • A cat can protract and retract its claws.